On Diet

The one thing I’ve learned in the course of my fitness journey is that progress will not happen unless your diet is in check. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that it is the most important criteria. Whether you are looking to lose weight, gain strength, increase stamina or build muscle, diet must be your foremost consideration. Training and exercise alone will not suffice, something that took me years to fully appreciate and understand.

To start, you need to know how much energy you need to sustain your current weight. You probably don’t know this number, do you? It sounds obvious but it still surprises me when those who want to lose weight tell me they don’t know what their daily caloric requirements are. There are many fitness calculators online that will do this for you easily, MyFitnessPal being one of the most well-known. For me, I know I need about 2,000 calories per day to maintain my current weight. Once you know your number, you will have something to work from.

You have probably already heard that to lose one pound per week you need to reduce your daily caloric intake by 500 calories. I think this is correct, as more than this would be too aggressive for most people; muscle loss may be the result if weight is lost too quickly (this happened to me in 2013). So a 500 calorie daily deficit is a good estimate to go with. Simply subtract 500 from your daily caloric requirement figure.

I always recommend that those who are trying to lose weight count daily calories for at least two or three weeks to get a handle on how much energy you are really consuming each day until you are able to accurately eyeball your consumption numbers. When I started I even went so far as to weigh my food. It takes practice, but early tracking is really key. MyFitnessPal is probably the best app out there for this. It’s worth the effort.

I am personally not a fan of counting calories for the long term, but it is necessary in the beginning to become intuitive about your eating habits. Eventually you’ll be able to estimate how many calories you are eating in any one meal. I am now able to look at my meals and very closely estimate how many calories I am consuming. I simply tabulate and total my calories as I eat throughout the day.